Senses:// Re-engineered

Over the past couple of weeks the term "Dunkirk Spirit", or the lack of it, has been overused by the media in slating the public service's inability to cope with the onslaught of white stuff. I have always imagined the essence of that to be "EVERYONE chipping in at the times of adversity" (e.g. how every sea-worthy ship, big or small went out to rescued those stranded on the French coast). A lot of people seems to be under the impression that since they have paid their dues, the council should do everything for them.

Sorry but this is a 1-in-30 years snow for Britain and on very rare occasions are systems designed to cope with such probabilities.

No councils would hire the amount of staff or stock the level of grit, on standby, to cope with this kind of weather. And even IF there is enough staff and IF there is enough grit, the geographic locations of some places would probably mean that the logistics won't reach them until all the snow has melted.

Some people even questioned why the army has been drafted in to provided relief to the local councils, since good tax money has been paid in the form of council tax. Why can't the council take care of themselves? The simple answer would be: Civilian Infrastructures are designed for "Return Periods" much shorter than those of the military. It is therefore natural for military resources to be deployed during freak weathers such as this.

The local councils are all struggling, some worse than others, because it is uneconomical to cater for 1-in-30 year occurences like the one we are experiencing. It wouldn't make sense to stock up on grit and ploughs for one year and having them go to waste in the other 29.

Government/military and other mission critical installations (power plants, water pumps) are designed for 1-in-50. This is the reason why some roads are fucked but we still have the basic essentials like gas and water. The entire Gloucester was fucked over by that 1-in-50 years storm and even the military struggled to cope with the rescue operations.

Same with the flooding up in Cumbria which have washed away a couple of bridges last year. They were all designed for 1-in-20 storm and they got washed away by a storm beyond 1-in-20 occurance... So the Military came in and built a 1-to-100 year temporary bridge, within 5 days, because they are equiped to do so.

Pretty much everything we are seeing now are unfolding like they are meant to. All the numbers are pretty much laid out like poetry on paper...